The last fortnight in Indian cricket has been a tale of fearless youth wielding the bat with aplomb while the masters continued to sparkle.
Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara at Bangalore, and now, Virat Kohli at Visakhapatnam have surely gladdened the hearts of the fans and the connoisseurs, as have stalwarts V.V.S. Laxman who stood firm at Mohali and Sachin Tendulkar who gave the cheering Bangaloreans sore throats.
Meanwhile, Yuvraj Singh has been busy rebuilding his career.
Fitness issues and vagaries of form have plagued Yuvraj over the last year.
After an indifferent run in the tri-series at Dhaka and the alleged pub-brawl incident during the ICC World Twenty20 in the West Indies in May, Yuvraj seemed to lose his way. The selectors dropped him from the Asia Cup squad.
Though he was subsequently sent to Sri Lanka for a tri-series, an imposing knock remained elusive. After Suresh Raina bagged Yuvraj's Test berth with a century at Colombo, the southpaw's despair seemed complete.
The Indian team think-tank, however, has enormous belief in Yuvraj's potential — M.S. Dhoni recently said: “He is a kind of player who can change gears at any point of the game and take control.
At the same time, he has played over 250 ODIs, which means he has got a lot of experience behind him. Apart from that, his bowling is very important for us because if we decide to play with four bowlers, we will use the other part-timer as the fifth bowler. He has got both dimensions of the game and that will help us.”
Big part of the plans
Yuvraj remains a key player in India's plans as the World Cup looms, and his success in the coming days will gift a sigh of relief to his team-mates. His 58 at Visakhapatnam — though dwarfed to a certain extent by Virat Kohli's in-the-trenches ton and Raina's blitz — was a significant contribution in a tall chase that ended with India gaining a 1-0 lead against Australia in the current ODI series.
When Yuvraj walked into bat at Visakhapatnam with India struggling at 35 for two while chasing 290, nerves jangled at the venue. He soon eased his front foot and whipped John Hastings over his favourite mid-wicket region and a sense of calm enveloped the ground as he and Kohli chiselled out a crucial 137-run third-wicket partnership that proved to be a match-winning stand.
Yuvraj is often trapped in the image of being a player who can single-handedly destroy attacks — a description built on innumerable big-hits and that classic six sixes off Stuart Broad. That perception, while valid, glosses over Yuvraj's partnership-building ability. In the past, Yuvraj and Rahul Dravid have scored 2,663 runs together in ODIs. He has also teamed up well with Dhoni and the dashing duo have notched up 2,365 runs that have often heralded Indian victories.
The game's longer version may have gotten away from him but the hunger to shine in whites is still there as he made it obvious with a double hundred while recently leading Rest of India to an Irani Trophy triumph against Mumbai.
India needs Yuvraj to shine in all his facets — as a powerful batsman, a weaver of productive batting alliances, a handy left-arm spinner and an agile fielder despite a dodgy knee.
